Formerly it was the custom for gardeners to invest their labours and achievements with a mystery and secrecy
which might well have discouraged any amateur from trespassing upon such difficult ground.
"Trade secrets" in either flower or vegetable growing were acquired by the apprentice only through practice and observation, and in turn jealously guarded by him until passed on to some younger brother in the profession.
Every garden operation was made to seem a wonderful and difficult undertaking.
Now, all that has changed. In fact the pendulum has swung, as it usually does, to the other extreme.
Often, if you are a beginner, you have been flatteringly told in print that you could from the beginning do just as well as the experienced gardener.
This garden business is a matter of common sense; and the man, or the woman, who has learned by experience how to do a thing, whether it is cornering the market or growing cabbages, naturally does it better than the one who has not.
Do not expect the impossible. If you do, read a poultry advertisement and go into the hen business instead of trying to garden.
I have grown pumpkins that necessitated the tearing down of the fence in order to get them out of the lot, and sometimes, though not frequently, have had to use the axe to cut through a stalk of asparagus, but I never "made £500 in ten months from an eggplant in a city back-yard.
" No, if you are going to take up gardening, you will have to work, and you will have a great many disappointments.
All that I, or anyone else, could put between the two covers of a book will not make a gardener of you.
It must be learned through the fingers, and back, too, as well as from the printed page. But, after all, the greatest reward for your efforts will be the work itself; and unless you love the work, or have a feeling that you will love it, probably the best way for you, is to stick to the grocer for your food.
"Trade secrets" in either flower or vegetable growing were acquired by the apprentice only through practice and observation, and in turn jealously guarded by him until passed on to some younger brother in the profession.
Every garden operation was made to seem a wonderful and difficult undertaking.
Now, all that has changed. In fact the pendulum has swung, as it usually does, to the other extreme.
Often, if you are a beginner, you have been flatteringly told in print that you could from the beginning do just as well as the experienced gardener.
This garden business is a matter of common sense; and the man, or the woman, who has learned by experience how to do a thing, whether it is cornering the market or growing cabbages, naturally does it better than the one who has not.
Do not expect the impossible. If you do, read a poultry advertisement and go into the hen business instead of trying to garden.
I have grown pumpkins that necessitated the tearing down of the fence in order to get them out of the lot, and sometimes, though not frequently, have had to use the axe to cut through a stalk of asparagus, but I never "made £500 in ten months from an eggplant in a city back-yard.
" No, if you are going to take up gardening, you will have to work, and you will have a great many disappointments.
All that I, or anyone else, could put between the two covers of a book will not make a gardener of you.
It must be learned through the fingers, and back, too, as well as from the printed page. But, after all, the greatest reward for your efforts will be the work itself; and unless you love the work, or have a feeling that you will love it, probably the best way for you, is to stick to the grocer for your food.
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